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DE RUEHJM #0254/01 0371131
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 061131Z FEB 09
FM AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4055
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEADWD/DA WASHINGTON DC//DAS-ZD/DACS-ZK//
RUEAHQA/CSAF WASHINGTON DC//POLAD//
RHMFIUU/CMC WASHINGTON DC
RUENAAA/CNO WASHINGTON DC//POLAD//
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 7532
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 4517
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 4365
RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 5859
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 4281
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2853

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 000254 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS BBG 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR ABRAMS 
CMC WASHINGTON DC FOR POLAD 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO FOR ICD 
LONDON FOR HKANONA AND POL - TSOU 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FOR MFO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KMDR KPAL KWBG KPAO IS
SUBJECT: JERUSALEM MEDIA REACTION (02/06):  NERVOUS ANTICIPATION OF 
A NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT 
 
------------- 
Main Stories: 
------------- 
Al Quds and Al Hayat Al Jadida lead with Gaza truce efforts in 
Cairo.  Al Ayyam gives the topic front page treatment.  Al Quds 
s 
cites news agencies when quoting an official Egyptian source 
predicting the truce agreement will be signed next week, once Israel 
conveys its response to issues raised by Palestinian factions in 
Cairo.  Al Ayyam's front page reports that Israeli Defense Ministry 
envoy Gilad continues meetings in Cairo while Al Hayat Al Jadida 
quotes Hamas delegation to Cairo spokesman Bardawil revealing that 
Hamas has prepared draft agreement.  Hamas is awaiting Israeli 
clarification on the kinds of goods that Israel will allow to enter 
into Gaza, and why Israel is rejecting the deployment of 
international observers to Gaza crossings.  Al Ayyam's front page 
quotes "well informed sources in Gaza" revealing that Hamas will not 
give a final response to a truce agreement until after Israeli 
elections.  Al Quds and Al Ayyam's front pages report that Hamas 
spokesman Ayman Taha was prevented by Egypt from entering Gaza with 
$12 million on February 5, and that Taha revealed to press that 
Israel has dropped its demand of linking any truce to the release of 
captured Israeli soldier Shalit. 
 
Al Quds runs a front page report quoting French Foreign Minister 
Kouchner, after a February 5 meeting with Secretary Clinton, 
confirming that France has indirect contacts with Hamas to 
facilitate humanitarian assistance in Gaza and expressing support 
for Palestinian Authority President Abbas.  He revealed in the joint 
press conference that France and the U.S. have agreed on pressure 
parties to open the Rafah crossing, and revealed that his talks with 
Clinton focused mainly on the Middle East.  According to reporting, 
Clinton agreed on the need to provide humanitarian assistance to the 
people of Gaza people and stated that the U.S. will continue 
coordinating efforts in the Middle East with France as well as on 
the issue of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. 
 
In an inside report, Al Quds runs a DPA story on discussions focused 
on the Middle East, between Secretary Clinton and Middle East 
Quartet Envoy Tony Blair in Washington on February 5.  The paper 
adds that Clinton's meeting is part of a series of meetings that she 
is holding with world leaders. 
 
An inside Al Quds' report quotes President Obama speaking at the 
National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, stating that, "Instead of 
driving us apart, our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed 
the hungry and comfort the afflicted."  The paper adds that Obama 
established a new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood 
Partnerships.  The paper runs an AFP photo of the President meeting 
with Middle East Quartet Envoy Tony Blair at the ceremony. 
Al Quds' front page cites DPA in reporting that representatives of 
ten western countries gathered in Denmark on February 5, failed to 
reach a legal agreement on preventing arms smuggling into Gaza.  The 
report further reports that Hamas has stated that all attempts to 
prevent arms smuggling into Gaza are doomed to fail. 
Al Ayyam cites news agencies in its lead story, also appearing on 
other front pages, about Palestinian Authority President Abbas 
calling for continuing humanitarian assistance to Gaza and support 
for a Gaza truce and reconstruction.  Abbas made his comments 
following a meeting with the British Premier Brown in London on 
February 5 and further called for the formation of a Palestinian 
national unity government that can respond to Palestinian needs and 
prepare for new presidential and legislative elections. 
All papers run front page reports and photos of the "Brotherhood" 
 
JERUSALEM 00000254  002 OF 002 
 
 
Lebanese humanitarian aid ship docked at Ashdod port in Israel after 
the Israeli navy blocked its entry to Gaza.  The papers quote 
Israeli army sources saying that the boat was not carrying arms, and 
that Israel will deport its staff on February 6.  Al Quds reports 
that the Palestinian Authority Presidency condemned the Israeli 
actions of commandeering the vessel and demanded Israel, "stop 
acting like a state that is above the law."  The papers quote a 
spokesman for the Arab League calling the incident "piracy." 
Al Quds runs a front page report, with a photo of a Gazan woman near 
tents and a destroyed house, quoting Palestinian Authority Premier 
Fayyad announcing the launch next week of an emergency cash 
assistance program for temporary shelter.  Under the program, every 
family whose house was demolished in the recent conflict with Israel 
will receive $5,000 or $3,000 for houses that were partially 
damaged. 
The three papers front page reports on the killing of a member of 
the Al Quds Brigades armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by 
Israel on February 5.  The killing occurred in Qabatyah near Jenin 
in the West Bank. Al Quds quotes Alaa's father saying that he was 
woken by an explosion and found Israeli soldiers entering the room 
that Alaa' shared with his brothers.  Al Ayyam runs an inside photo 
of the blood-stained bed where the member died. 
Al Quds' front page runs a report of a new Israeli tunnel being dug 
under the left side of the Ayn Silwan mosque, near the Al Aqsa 
mosque in Jerusalem.  The Israeli tunnel was condemned by the 
Islamic Waqf as it goes deep under the Al Aqsa mosque, connecting to 
other Israeli tunnels, according to reporting.-------------- 
BLOCK QUOTES: 
-------------- 
 
1)  Editorialist Yousef Maki writes in Al Quds under the title, "To 
the American President, Obama"(02/06):  "Because our belief in 
humanity and our religious faith require us to respond to a good 
wish with yet a better wish, and because you have taken the 
initiative to call for the use of dialogue instead of force, we 
[Palestinians], despite all that has happened to us in terms of 
disappointment and being let down by your predecessors, we, 
nonetheless heartily wish you success during your term in office, 
hoping that our issues will receive their share of justice and 
fairness, especially since our case is humble and will not burden 
n 
you.  [The case] is simply one of gaining the most basic of 
rights... the right to a dignified, free life and nothing more." 
2) Rajab Abu Sarayah opines in Al Ayyam under the title, "Gaza: 
Fire in the fireplace!"(02/06):  "Not reaching a truce agreement 
between Israel and Gaza will free Netanyahu [if elected as Israel's 
Prime Minister] from a commitment that would remind him [of events] 
that paved the way for the Wye River agreements that drove him from 
the Prime Minister's office... in light of a possible extremist 
[Israeli] rightwing government and the absence of a truce agreement 
that might tie Netanyahu's hands, we may be headed for another 
bloody chapter with a military offensive [in Gaza] that is no less 
vicious than the previous one." 
WALLES